


If Only It Were True

by afteriwake



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Dating All Along, Didn't Know They Were Dating, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Introspection, It's For a Case, Light Angst, Meeting the Parents, Poor Molly, Relationship(s), Undercover, Undercover Molly, Undercover Sherlock, Undercover as a Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-25 13:07:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6196255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Molly regrets agreeing to pretend to be Sherlock’s girlfriend for an undercover case, especially when it involves meeting his parents. That’s where she’s prepared to draw the line. But a surprising admission from Sherlock leads her to reconsider things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If Only It Were True

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MaybeItsJustMyType](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaybeItsJustMyType/gifts), [sideofrawr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sideofrawr/gifts).



> And now we're on Day 3 of Sherlolly Appreciation Week on Tumblr, which for the non-canon prompts is Undercover Cases! This is an answer to a prompt from **MaybeItsJustMyType** that went " _Molly is going to meet Sherlock's parents because they are dating, but it's fake for a case. Molly gets teary and Sherlock is shocked she is still in love._ " He's not super shocked, and I apologize for that, but I still think it's a close enough answer. Also gifted to **sideofrawr** who had picked this fic when the title acronym was up for grabs back in November! I hope this is fluffy enough even if it's not one of your usual ships, hun.

She didn’t know why she had agreed to this. It had all snowballed into so much more than what she had initially agreed to. When she had said she would agree to be his significant other for the case, to move into Baker Street to lure the serial killer going after professional couples, she hadn’t imagined it would lead to all of _this_. Oh, no, this…this was all just too much. She had to put her foot down before it just became too hard to walk away, before her heart broke into a million tiny pieces.

In the beginning it had all seemed so simple: she would move into his flat and they would act as though they were a couple. A few dates a week, a few instances of public displays of affection. They would spend some more time around each other, but generally that would be it. He hadn’t really wanted her to, and she’d been hesitant to agree, but Greg had been desperate. They’d had another pair of coppers in mind but the two of them were at each other’s throats over the newest round of promotions and there was no way they’d but it behind them long enough to fool anyone. She and Sherlock were friendly, they already spent enough time together to make it seem that it wouldn’t be inconceivable…please, Greg had begged, it would be a huge favour. Sherlock had acquiesced first, surprisingly. He said he’d do whatever it took to make her comfortable, follow whatever rules she put down. He’d playacted with Janine; he could do it with her. It wouldn’t have to mean anything, and it would get a menace off the street.

That had been the part that had been hard to swallow for her. It would mean nothing to him.

But it would mean everything to her.

But in the end, she had agreed. To make the ruse complete, she had “sold” her flat to a friend, put her furniture in storage, or at least the things she didn’t bring to Baker Street. Mrs. Hudson had actually taken quite a liking to a lot of her furniture, and she knew which pieces Sherlock favoured when he was at her flat. And so they began their ruse. She assumed it was easy for him to fake an attraction to her, to pretend he cared, that he was in love with her. But it was hell for her, because for her, it wasn’t pretend.

She really was in love with him. Madly, deeply, truly in love with her arrogant arse of a consulting detective.

And oh Lord, every moment of this ruse was such exquisite torture.

And it stretched on for what seemed like an eternity. No matter what they did, no matter how they situated themselves, they just weren’t coming off as the killer’s type. Part of her was just waiting for Scotland Yard to put the kibosh on the whole thing, tell her and Sherlock to stage a huge dramatic break-up and be done with it. Part of her was waiting for them to suggest for them to push him into a proposal or marriage. She wasn’t sure which she’d prefer, to be honest.

Right now, she was stuck with meeting his parents, and she was sure that if either of those came in the near future, it was going to be infinitely worse after tonight. 

She was supposed to be getting ready but she was at the vanity she’d had moved into their bedroom, sitting in the chair in her slip, staring at the mirror. She shouldn’t go through with this. She _couldn’t_ go through with this. Lying to her friends and colleagues was one thing, but his parents? No, that was too low. That was just…that was going to break his mum’s heart, when she found out this was all a ruse to catch a serial killer, that her son didn’t really care for her, that it was Janine Hawkins all over again, only this time he’d paraded the woman in front of her. She couldn’t do that to him. She needed to put her foot down.

He came into the bedroom, adjusting his cuffs, and then he stared at her. She caught his reflection in the mirror. “You aren’t dressed,” he said with a frown.

She shook her head. “I can’t do this, Sherlock,” she said quietly. “I can’t keep doing this. I can’t perpetuate this lie anymore.”

“It’s just dinner,” he said, lowering his arms.

“It’s more than that,” she said, looking away. “It’s dinner with your _parents_ , where you’re going to introduce me as the woman you love. But you don’t love me. I’m just your fake girlfriend. I’m just your friend, the friend you convinced to date you to catch a killer.” She felt a small lump in her throat. Oh Lord, she was going to start crying. No, no, she didn’t want to do that. “I never should have agreed to this. It was so foolish. I should have let some other woman agree to this and just…watched and been jealous.”

“I wouldn’t have agreed to this with another woman,” he replied.

“But it would have worked just the same,” she said as a tear slipped down her face. “And then my heart would have broken but it wouldn’t _hurt_ because I wouldn’t be with you but not _with_ you.” She sniffed slightly. “This is all just so…stupid. I’m crying and I shouldn’t even be crying over a stupid fake relationship.”

“You still love me?” he asked quietly.

She nodded. “Yes,” she said.

“I see,” he said. “Then, perhaps, we should make a go of it, seeing as how I don’t really have a problem with this being real.”

Her head snapped up and she turned to look at Sherlock, her eyes wide with surprise. “What?” she asked.

“The reason this would never have worked with anyone else is I did not want anyone else. If I was going to have to enter into any relationship with anyone, I would have preferred you. And yes, at first I knew it was not, strictly speaking, an actual relationship, but I have not considered it to be fake on my part for some time.” He moved over towards her, just a bit hesitantly, and then knelt in front of her. “When I introduced you to my mother and father tonight as my girlfriend, as the woman I was in love with, I was going to truly mean it. I think at some point the lines between what was fake and what was real seem to have blurred for me. I just wasn’t sure if you felt similarly. I am still not good at reading the emotions of others. I still have trouble with reading my own.”

She felt a wide smile blossom on her face. “You really love me, Sherlock?”

He nodded slowly, reaching up to wipe the tears away. “I have for some time.”

“I didn’t realize,” she said.

“Then I’ll make sure to tell you often,” he said. He caressed her face and then straightened slightly and kissed her softly. “You should get ready. I think we should make sure we’re not late.”

“All right,” she said, her heart light for the first time since the ruse began. Now that she knew it wasn’t a ruse, that his feelings were genuine, she felt happy, far happier than she had in ages. Whatever else this case brought, they would deal with it together, and they would be triumphant. They would solve it. She had the utmost faith in that.


End file.
